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McCullers: 'There Is Not A Blackout'

By: Adam Jardy

The Columbus Dispatch - March 20, 2014 05:25 PM

The Crew hosted its annual media day this morning/afternoon at Crew Stadium. In addition to the buzz generated by a strong preseason and decisive season-opening win for the Crew, a number of off-the-field business items were addressed as well.

“I think the first thing that I’d like for us to start agreeing upon is that there is not a blackout,” he said. “The games are not blacked out. They’re available in the market on Time Warner. We’ve gotten in a habit of talking about the blackout, but there’s not a blackout.”

I asked McCullers what the right phrase would be if blackout is incorrect.

“What we’re trying to do is increase distribution and access,” he said. “That’s what we’re trying to improve. Those two things were compromised in this agreement, so those are things that we’re working on and I don’t have an update at this point in time.”

So is there a timetable for when fans could see a change in distribution and access?

“I do not want to speculate at this time,” he said. “The only thing I will say is that we understand, we’re aware, (and) whether it’s this week, next week, next month, whatever the case is, distribution is important. Our fans’ access is important and we are going to continue to try to improve that.”

Crew StadiumIn addition to reaching 10,000 season tickets, the Crew has been working to sign a naming-rights partner for Crew Stadium. McCullers likes to frame talks in three phases: introduction, presentation and negotiation.

“We have been to the negotiation stage with one company,” he told me today. “We have, I would say, half a dozen other prospects on our active list right now that are certainly earlier in the process. Just because we’re in the negotiation stage, that still could be a long way to go. That’s the most important stage, but the number of prospects and I look at the brands of the companies and see how they might fit and what their objectives are, I look at them and say, ‘OK, I can see this.’ We’re having some of those conversations.”

So does that mean the Crew is in negotiations right now?

“Yes,” he said. “We have been in negotiation.”

I told McCullers that his language sounded past tense concerning being in the negotiation phase with one possible partner.

“Yes, it’s in progress,” he said. “We are still in the negotiation process.”

McCullers said that the top priority is to find a local company but that national or international companies would not be excluded in the right situation.

Tuesday, the Crew received unanimous approval from the Columbus Graphics Commission to add LED signage to the north and east sides of Crew Stadium. Any construction on those – or the marquee the club received approval for last season – would not begin until a naming-rights partner was signed, McCullers said.

Goal 10KThe Crew continues to decline to provide specific numbers on its quest to reach 10,000 season-ticket holders, but McCullers did mention the topic today.

“This year we expect to exceed 8,000 (season-ticket holders) from a starting point of about 4,500 when we launched Goal 10K in 2011,” he said. “So we’ve made substantial progress on that front. The past two years represent the largest growth period in the club since the opening of Crew Stadium. The 2013 operating result for the company was the best since the stadium opened in 1999. The business is as sound as it has been. The path that we’re on, the vision that we have is exciting.”

Last season, the Crew announced that it had reached 7,000 season-ticket holders.